Happy's already posted a realy good post about finding good breeders, so I thought I'd be a little more specific.

One thing about the breeds you've picked is that I don't really seem much of a theme beyond rarity. I think you need to very carefully consider what it is that you need in a dog as far as training goes.

I've addressed how I feel about Husky SDs in this thread - http://www.dogster.com/forums/Service_and_Therapy_Dogs/thread/722645 - and I should also add that since I wrote that, Jack has washed out of training. He's a WONDERFUL dog, and he's doing great in sports (admittedly, not obedience - but he's having a blast in dock dogs and lure coursing) and we may do therapy work- but he's just not got the work ethic it takes.

There are a number of people with Chessies as service dogs out there and they can be a good choice IF you have the right Chessie. There are a lot of downright weird temperaments in the breed, and as a 'protective retriever' there's some pretty weird stuff accepted as 'normal' behavior that *I* would call bad temperament.

I've only met three curlycoated retrievers. Based on those three, I just couldn't recommend them. Flighty, flakey, lovely dogs, but they were like an even sillier flatcoat. I'd also be very concerned about health. I think if you like curly, you'd be better off finding a well bred standard poodle or portie. Yes, you have to clip them, but you'd have a LOT more options for breeders who DO stuff with their dogs (although msot curly people do apparently hunt. YMMV).

Rotties, we've got rottie folks on the board and hopefully some of them will speak up.

The most important thing, if you're committed to force free training with your puppy is to find a VERY good trainer to workw ith you in person. You need someone who has trained with these methods to a very high level (preferably service dogs or competition obedience).

A great deal of avoiding any corrections in training (other than NRMs) is to set dogs up to succeed by NOT putting them in a situation where they will get to practice incorrect behaviors. A good FFT will help you do the set ups you need to get lots of practice with slowly increasing distractions and encourage you to move forawrd, without overfacing your dog. Having a trainer (objective third party) who can also make sure you're acounntable and truly ready to be a fully trained SD team is also really important, especially if you're not a super experienced trainer yourself.

Yup - but if you've got a trainer who's comfortable giving a pbulic access test, an affadavit and certification from them is not an unreasonable request. I do this for the teams I work with, if they want it.

Huskies are wonderful, highly intelligent dogs. They tend to be non-reactive and not aggressive or defensive towards strangers. But they're exceedingly difficult to proof for serious obedience, and in general, they're just a really tough choice for serious training for ANYTHING other than the type of job they're really meant for- pulling.

If he's really got his heart set on a husky, I'd encourage him to look at Samoyeds (if the size is important- of the three common sled dog breeds, they're the easiest and the most tolerent of repetition) or even better (and assumign this is an in-home dog like most hearing dogs are), Alaskan Klee Kai. AKKs are frequently a bit too timid for public work, but they're very alert to sounds (schipperke was one of the breeds used in creating AKKs). If the dog is going to work in public, I'd encourage him to look at Keeshonds and Eurasiers, both of whom are 'exotic' looking but significantly easier to train than huskies.

All that said, there ARE individual, one in a million huskies who are atypical- especially if you look at adult husky mixes in rescue (don't look at puppies, you don't know how they will turn out.) I've met one sibe that works as a wheelchair dog who was adequately (if not exceptionally) well trained, and ahusky mix psychdog. And well... when it comes to SDITs... I haven't introduced him yet, but take a look at Kaylee's siblings on her page...

Cait (who failed fostering for the first time in over a decade last week)

Kaylee had bee mostly retired from this summer due to a mystery lameness that was progressing and for which we could not find a cause- x-rays, chiropractor, a sports med vet- nothing found any reason for it. She began having seizures on 1/13/11 and responded to phenobarb. The side effects started out bad and got worse, primarily ataxia. After the first week, with my vet's permission, we decreased and took her off the medication, and she continued to decline. My vet thinks it was a brain tumor. She was not quite four years old. We let her go on 1/26/11.

She was a really amazing dog and the hole she has left in my life is huge. I thought I had time- even if we didn't figure out the lameness, I thought I had time before I could start training a successor, just enjoying her as a pet and companion. I know I want another SD, but I'm not sure where I'm going from here. I'm done with collies, at least for a while- I just can't do that again. Kaylee was a super-special girl and everyone who met her loved her. I haven't decided if I'll continue to use her image on this board or not- it's pretty raw right now. My profile now contains more bridge dogs than current pets.

Dog breeds are not simply different looking. They were bred for different functions, and the traits to make those functions easier to train and teach. Are all dogs of a given breed identical in drives, energy level, and breed traits? No, of course not. But when you're already looking for a one in a thousand dog- that dog with the suitability to become a SD- it makes NO sense to choose a breed where not only are you looking for all the normal service dog qualities, but those qualities are rare in the breed itself.

For example, ability to be trained to be safe off leash is a priority for me- not because my dogs are loose in public, but because when we visit the family farm we typically do a lot of walking in the pastures which are fenced only with wire fencing- easy for a dog to get through. I need to be able to rely on my dog to come when called in that situation. It would be silly of me to insist on a greyhound or a siberian husky as a SD prospect when maybe one in a hundred of either of those breeds is even safe off leash- and there's no guarantee that any of those 10/1000 are the same 1/1000 that are suitable for SD work! It's just a simple numbers game.

I think it's exceedingly unusual for a female SD to be bred- it is going to mean almost 6 months off work for her! But I don't think it's necessarily unusual for an OT who is also 'into' the dog world who has a male SD (especially a homebred one) to breed HIM- his part of the deal just isn't the same level.

Puppy age is a balancing act. There's definitely a degree to which breed plays into it, with different breeds having different rates at which they mature (I do think it's less about where the socialization window opens as when it closes, contrasted with when the puppies are at the best age to be evaluated for future quality, which varies quite a bit by breed.) There's also a degree of practicality- if you have a breed that has large litters, getting each and every puppy out individually is NOT going to happen every day for a month between 8 weeks and 12 weeks. If you have TWO puppies to socialize, that's a LOT easier.

I think it's accurate to say that reputable breeders do NOT let puppies go before 7 weeks unless it's a VERY unusual situation (such a breeder going into the hospital as an emergency or something.) Most of the breeds who go at 7 weeks seem to be field breeds. Most toy breeds go between 10-12, with a few staying on till 16 as the norm for the breed.

In general, I want my puppies home and settled into a routine before the first fear period. 8-9 weeks is fine for me. If I'm going to get a puppy over 4 months though, and I *haven't* been very involved or known the breeder well enough to make sure that puppy has really gotten out a bunch (and not JUST to handling class, or JUST to ride along to school or something that is adequate for a pet dog or a show dog but NOT adequate for what I want and expect).... I probably won't take that puppy. I'd rather get a young adult where there's a degree of WYSIWYG. You can't shape things like you can from the beginning, but if you're going to start with habits already established, I'd rather know where the rough patches are.